Part 6

“Perpetuate the scene! Give me boyhood again; give me the lost and the beloved, and I’ll adore you,--aye, love you!”

He arose calmly, after her lips had been pressed to his.

“Drink,” was the reply. “Drink from this cup, Morden, and death shall not separate the brother from the sister. Beautiful she was a month before her sudden end, and that month shall never be enrolled in your existence. Drink,--and the past is written over with every drop of this liquid, on the tablet of your mind, and on the objects of your external senses. Could inanimate things feel its influence--and shall not the mind? Drink!” and the scene again arose, in more thrilling beauty and truth. Sweet and long was the draught, and he returned the cup, empty. Strange sensations shot through his frame, and as strange feelings passed in his mind. Emily, in a moment, was forgotten, and his arms were around his companion, when a shriek was heard, and in place of the fading form of his sister, stood the withered Weird of the Cave! Her daughter, (for such the beautiful witch was,) now coldly repulsed him, and shrunk from his embrace. As soon as he could move his eyes from the hag, he turned round to chide his companion, when he found that she had disappeared. A loud laugh was raised by the old witch, and he pursued her. Darkness fell over the scene, and once more he was near to the dying embers.

“Go home!” exclaimed the hag,--“go home, and die there along with your dead wife and child! It is long past midnight. It is, therefore, meet time that you should go to sleep with them. Home--fool!”

Her words drove Morden almost to madness. He climbed up to the entrance, and as he left the cave, he heard the laugh of the two witches. He rushed along the path. He saw not the lurid lights that flashed around him, from the dark abode which he had left. Terror, shame, and despair, were driving their victim to what he considered as a sanctuary from evil. He was heedless of his steps, and as he stumbled, it but increased his fury; when he felt himself suddenly grasped, and on looking up, recognized his servant Roger.

“Is all well,--is all well, Roger, with your mistress? Speak, man,--speak!”

The servant hesitated, and then replied, “Yes, master!”

“Kind, dear Emily!” exclaimed Morden, “she has sent you to search for me. Nay, Roger, I will outstrip you; and I can delay no longer.--How anxious she will be! Death! no--no--it was but a horrible dream! Yet, Roger,--am I agitated? would my looks frighten Emily? Frighten--oh! no. Not a moment is to be lost,” and he darted forward, and soon, all breathless, reached his abode. He trode up the lawn with as heavy a pace as possible, in order that suspense might be ended, and that she might know of his return, before he appeared. A dim light was in the hall when he entered.

* * * * *

The faithful servant, when he arrived, heard no noise, and although he felt keenly for the woes of his master, did not venture into the hall before morning,--and there was his master lying, with his arms around his wife. He spoke to him;--but he spoke to the dead!

* * * * *

A distant relation laid claim to the dwelling, with the land attached to it; but from the awful scenes in the former, which we have related, it became uninhabited, and was soon an entire ruin; finally even without a wreck.

THE DEVIL’S WALL.

“Jeremiah, read those directions and intimations once more; they contain no less than a challenge to my valour. Truly his Black Majesty seems to think that he can toss about the ball of earth for his amusement; and that there is not a tailor who would venture to ‘measure him.’ Ah! Nick, give me a trial.”

Thus spoke Gideon Chiselwig, tailor, in Ormskirk. Unlike the most of his brethren belonging to that honourable profession, he could boast of six feet of perpendicular matter; but conceiving that even that height was too low a tabernacle for his giant soul, he fixed to the one extremity a long red nightcap, whilst he made the other move on tiptoe, much to the mirth of the quizzing old maids, for which that town is noted. He was never seen with that upper garment, commonly called a coat; unless to display one of fashionable cut, which he had just finished; and the absence of this did not take from Gideon’s stature. Some conjectured that he knew this; others had seen Mrs. Gideon, at home, arrayed in what, evidently, had once been a coat; and they jocosely remarked, that she had altogether monopolized the use of her husband’s apparel, for now they had seen her with the coat, and Gideon himself had confessed that she wore the breeches.--He had a vest, but the pockets were only visited by his hands; silver and gold they had never weighed; so that to all intents and purposes--the wife wore the vest also.

Nature, however, had denied him her average allowance of breadth and thickness, so much so, that in a tour to remarkable places, during the honey-moon, having entered a museum in the metropolis, the blushing bride was asked by the keeper, what was the price she fixed upon the piece of anatomy which she brought. Gideon, did, indeed, convince the questioner of his mistake, by a powerful and conclusive argument directed against his head: still people will suspect, even in the face of ample evidence; and the report had been afloat, that there was something altogether strange about him. This only served to give a more singular character to the tailor, and nothing short of the marvellous in adventure could win his attention and occupy his thoughts.

Others hinted, that were Mrs. Gideon not to awake him so early; not to rap his knuckles, when at table he was stretching forth his hand to help himself; nor yet to allow the poker to fall upon his toes and corns, when they ventured within a few yards of the fire; not to compel him to perform the necessary ablutions on a cold morning, a mile from the house, and then allow the sun, the wind, or the frost, to dry him; not to confine him, for bedclothes, to a sheet in winter, and his shirt in summer; nor yet, occasionally, to exercise her hands, and a stick, upon his body; Gideon would soon improve in appearance, and, at length, be a rival to the oily priest. But the old maids (for Mrs. Gideon had formerly been one of the numerous sisterhood residing there) considered such hints as morsels of scandal;--and who can, with more propriety, condemn scandal, than old maids?--and if, in the multitude of councillors there be safety, their view of the matter, certainly, had every assurance of being the correct one--that he was killed by too much fondling and love. Ah! ah! poor Gideon knew better. He had a scar on his face that he was proud to shew, for he had received it in honourable combat with a barber;--but he had others, below the night-cap, and many all over his person, which he was glad to conceal; for these he received from his wife! At first he resisted her encroachment upon the rights of man; but soon his noble spirit disdained to contend with a woman. He had not lost a dram of courage, and he burned for some supernatural achievement.

His brother Jeremiah was made exactly in the antipodean style. He was short and round; yet, as he himself pathetically said, when the doctor, dreading apoplexy, had inquired about his diet, “tears were his daily food, and misfortunes were the vinegar and salt.” His eyes, in fact, seemed to have invisible onions always around them. It was so when he was a babe, and his mother was in the habit of remarking, that Jeremiah would not be troubled with water in the head, because it would never stay there. When he entered upon the profession of a tailor, Gideon had serious doubts that he would but bring disgrace on it, himself, and all his relations; for, as he very wisely reasoned, “How could he use the goose?--however hot it was, in a moment his tears would cool it. And as for his needles--a hundred would become rusty in a day.” However, Jeremiah passed his apprenticeship with distinction, and became a partner in his brother’s shop; where we introduce them, squatted on a large table, to our readers, at the moment that Gideon had finished the sentence which opens the Legend.

Jeremiah had in his hand, an old and tattered book, which seemed to have been read by the feet, and not the eyes. He raised his eyes from it, as his brother spoke, and poured forth a fresh flood of tears. “Ah! brother,” he said, “you’ll still be after what leads to your destruction. I warned you against marriage. On the night previous, did I not strike you sharply on the ankle, and then upon the head, and ask you how you could endure to have it repeated a hundred times, in the whole multiplication table of your life. And now,” here tears impeded his words, “can I not read about Satan’s tricks without your wishing--”

“Resolving you mean; nay, Jeremiah, call it resolving to fight him. I’m sure that he’s in Ormskirk. Yesterday morning, when I came from washing myself, I traced in the snow a strange hoof to this very door. There never was such a nunnery of old maids, in which he was not found wooing them. But--but I’ll make a goose of him--I will!” concluded the magnanimous tailor.

“A goose! a goose!” exclaimed the simple Jeremiah, in horror, “he’ll burn our hands, and the cloth. I cannot use him for a goose. Oh! brother, only say that you will not make him either a needle or a goose, and I’ll read the words over again.”

“Well, well,” returned Gideon, a little pacified, as well as elated, by the thought that there was one who really did think that he was able to turn the devil into a goose, “sweep away your tears. You’ll find the table cloth near you. Use the dirty corner twice, and Nelly wont need to wash it.”

Jeremiah followed his brother’s directions, carefully passed the cloth over his face, and once more fixed his eyes upon the book. Gideon laid aside a pair of gaiters, which he was making for the comfort of his wife. The winter was severe--and the doctor, it seems, had said at the house of some wealthy person that there would be a great mortality that season, should females not keep their feet properly warm, and the report had spread through all the town, and had been pretty well circulated, both by the tailors and shoemakers. In fact, shoes and gaiters had been exhibited under the imposing titles of life-preservers. Towards evening the sexton had been known to look suspiciously upon them, and even openly to condemn the traffic; but the articles were still in great demand.

Mrs. Gideon’s gaiters being, as we have said, thrown aside, the tailor settled himself into the posture which was most becoming the spirit of the reply, which he intended to make to the proposition now to be propounded, and Jeremiah commenced reading--

“About midnight, let him go out into a wood, wherein there be divers kinds of trees; let him stand behind a yew, and clapping his hands together, cry out, come here, James, (such being the endearing name by which he is known to his friends,) come here. He shall then perceive a whisper from the top of the tree. Let him instantly draw around him a magic circle, with the forefinger of his right hand, lest his devilship, being angry, pettish, or mischievous, may enter unawares, and suffocate him with his breath. He must next name the conditions, upon the fulfilment of which, he surrenders himself as a slave, then and for ever. He may ask any thing, and his master is bound to perform it, or break the league, and allow his hoof to be scratched with six pins or needles.”

“I have it!” exclaimed Gideon, “the agreement shall be made this very night,” and he looked terrible things to a portrait of Apollyon, which he had torn out of “Pilgrim’s Progress,” and plastered over the mantel-piece.

But not contented with this manner of defiance, he sprung upon his toes, hastily drew a needle from his waistcoat, and pinked the enemy through and through the breast, in spite of scales and hellish armour. Jeremiah, upon this, could not refrain from weeping, and cried out, “poor dragon! poor dragon!”

“Poor dragon! Poor, indeed!” returned the doughty conqueror. “But see, how fierce he looks! The longer I strike, his eyes become larger, and expand with rage.”

When this announcement was made, Jeremiah quickly drew a circle around him. This caution was unnecessary; for Gideon, seizing the picture, threw it to the door, which Mrs. Chiselwig, at that moment opening, received it full in her face. With a loud shout, the enraged wife flew at her husband--we cannot say like a dove to its mate. Nelly had a singular fancy and propensity for squinting; and her visual organs seemed always, as if chiding nature for the place which she had given them to occupy, and were just upon the eve of taking their departure to some back settlements on the head, as sentinels to guard a large neck-covering, which she wore with some degree of pride. Jeremiah, who had a mixture of shrewdness with all his simplicity, had long been of opinion, after careful observation, comparison, and induction of facts, that squinting was the property of old maids, and very philosophically, as well as categorically, gave the following reasons. First--since they always look back upon age, and, in their own calculations, never become older, but sometimes younger; why should not their eyes be in the posterior of their head? Secondly--female eyes ought always to be in front, when their lips are in danger of being saluted; but as old maids are not exposed to this danger, such a situation is not necessary. But be this as it may, there could be no doubt of the fact, that Mrs. Gideon Chiselwig did squint, and viewed every thing at right angles. Perhaps she wished to avoid the labour of her eyes travelling over a large nose. Still, squinting as she did, she took a tolerably correct aim at the shoulders of her spouse. In vain did he look pale, in vain did he attempt to kiss her, and excuse the deed, by affirming that it was purely accidental: all these circumstances did not stay the uplifted hand, or take away a grain from its weight. She had frequently complained of being very delicate, and when the doctor had been called in to feel her pulse with his finger, poor Gideon wished that he could only feel her fist with his head, as he must then have come to a very different conclusion. She could faint, go vulgarly into hysterics, look as pale as a drooping lily, and speak of consumption:--ah! Gideon knew that she could likewise strike hard. It was not the mere “ego,” tripping on his tongue, which said so: every rib, every bone, every member told the same tale. On this occasion, Nelly did not abate any of her strength.

“Angel of my life!” Gideon cried out, “desist, oh! Nelly desist!”

“You treat me as an angel, eh? Doff your nightcap then, in an angel’s presence, and make your lowest bow of reverence.”

Gideon silently obeyed, and very soon had his head scratched to his wife’s content. We omitted to mention that Nelly’s figure rather came under the definition of dumpy; so that had Gideon only been able to read the classics, and to know that the face of man was made to look towards the skies, or the ceiling, she could not, without the labour of mounting a high stool, have reached him, so as to inflict _capital_ punishment.

Meanwhile, Jeremiah’s eyes were moist enough. We have our suspicion that a _wave_ of Mrs. Chiselwig’s hand deposited a few tears there. Still, as this phenomenon was by no means unusual, the Chronicler leaves the point without any further investigation.

After “wholesome severities” had been administered to Gideon by his wife, she dragged him to a seat beside the fire, where she also seated herself, and began to examine the evidence of an exculpatory nature, which the offender had to produce; and to the furtherance of the ends of justice, called his brother to be jury in the case. Jeremiah, in his own mind, had some doubts as to the equity of this course of proceeding: but he was too wise to allow any private opinion of his to contradict the wish of the judge. He thought, too, that his brother’s heroism was much too pure and exalted, since it led him to be passively submissive to the treatment of his wife, lest he might use his weapons ingloriously, when their edge was to be turned against Satan; and as he rose from the table to occupy the jury-box, he was almost tempted to tell both parties that he would be their mutual second, in a fair combat, and then strength would be both jury and judge, and fists would pronounce guilty or not guilty, and register the doom or acquittal accordingly. But Jeremiah shewed his prudence by being silent. Mrs. Chiselwig motioned him to his seat, when her eyes fell upon the gaiters, lying unfinished on the floor.

“So,” she began, “you thought I should not require gaiters after you had killed me, and had resolved to be thrifty, that you might tempt some other person to be your wife?”

Gideon, in reply, raised his eyes. We have some doubt as to whether this movement was expressive of his calling Heaven to witness that he was innocent of any such design; or of his chiding Heaven, for not having brought accidents to such a desirable issue.

Mrs. Gideon’s head began to incline a little to her left hand, which was opened to support it; her breast was heaving against her right hand; her eyes were rolling in an interesting lack-lustre; and her face, with the exception of the nose, was pale. These were symptoms of hysterics. She seemed about to fall from her seat, and Gideon once thought of helping her to her wish, by removing the chair from under her, but when he thought over the matter twice, the idea was abandoned, for Nelly had been known to recover in a wondrously short time, from her fainting fits. On this occasion she contented herself with bursting into tears.

“Oh! cruel brute, to be yoked to such a delicate little heart! Why did I leave the holy state of single life. I might now have been seated, eating gingerbread as I was when the wretch came with his proposals!”

Gideon gave a sigh, and thought that even Ormskirk gingerbread should not tempt him, were he free, to bear her company.

Mrs. Chiselwig continued,--

“Was not my shop the most frequented of any in the town? Those who could not pay to eat the gingerbread, stood gazing upon it at the window, and feasted their eyes; those who were my friends, were allowed to smell it; and those who ate it, thought that they would never die. Where was the true lover that did not regularly, when about to visit his sweetheart, buy a little of Nelly’s cake, in order that he might have an agreeable and pleasant breath?”

“And did not your own true love,” interrupted Gideon in an appeal overflowing with tenderness, “pay your shop many of such periodical visits, and did he not, in the slyness of the feeling, pretend that he was about to visit such and such a damsel, and then, after swallowing a cake or two, delicately and timidly ask pardon for the liberty he was about to take, in wishing you to decide, by allowing him a salute on your own sweet lips, whether his breath was made agreeable enough? Oh! Nelly, have you altogether forgot those days?”

At this moment, when he was pursuing his reminiscences, he came upon one which he passed over in silence. In “those days” to which he referred, he had his suspicions that Nelly’s decision was not quite disinterested, for after one salute, and frequently two salutes, she was of opinion that Gideon’s breath was not sufficiently flavoured to make it pleasant, and, of course, he was under the necessity of purchasing a few more cakes of gingerbread. Then, however, these suspicions were counterbalanced by others, which whispered, that instead of wishing him to spend his money, she was only anxious that he should spend his kisses. Woman is said to be fickle and changeable: but some hold that man, after marriage, changes his opinion much more than woman, adducing as a proof, the existence of angels on earth in female form, to which every unmarried man swears a hundred times, but which no married man believes. Gideon, accordingly, was not exactly of the same opinion, in reference to Nelly’s motive for the course of conduct described, and he recollected many a squint in the direction of his pocket, confirmatory of the change. This one reminiscence, we have said, Gideon omitted to suggest to Mrs. Chiselwig, and was about to wander over others which might tend to warm her towards him, when Jeremiah waved him to silence, and began,--

“And, madam, you surely have not yet forgot how many times I entered the shop, and made some purchases?”

“No,” sharply returned Mrs. Chiselwig, “twelve times, and out of these, five times you left the shop without leaving your money. One of my reasons for marrying the fool, your brother, was, that I might not lose your account. But, Jeremiah, finish my gaiters, and you shall be quit for the interest due to me. So, Mr. Chiselwig, you thought that I would never use them, but I shall outlive you, and obtain another husband.”

Jeremiah moved uncomfortably on his seat, but resolved in his own mind, that _he_ would never be that husband.

“Another husband!” continued Nelly, after thinking over her last words, “no, no. Why did I leave the virgin state?--oh! why--why?”

Gideon listened eagerly, expecting to hear her assign a reason, the “why,” and the “wherefore,” for when he asked himself the same question, he could invent no answer.

“I was a fool--a fool,” she concluded.

Her spouse thought that the same answer would do for him likewise, and that marriage had coupled them in folly. Mrs. Chiselwig then left the room to retreat to bed, warning Gideon against making his appearance there before morning.

The two brothers drew closer to each other, and, in a short time, our hero was “himself again,” and spoke of undertaking an adventure with Satan that very night. And the first question to be settled was, what should Gideon’s apparel be? Some philosophers, perhaps, will say, that in strict logical arrangement, this ought not to have been the first question, and that the time and place had prior claims upon their notice. But, let it be remembered, that the hero was a tailor.--Jeremiah was decidedly of opinion that Gideon should not take a coat. “The book,” he argued, “gives directions that a circle be drawn round your person. Now, should the slightest movement on your part be made, the skirts of the coat might fly over the circle, and the enemy might seize them, and thus draw you from your strong hold of safety, and carry you away.”

It was, therefore agreed upon, _nem. con._ that Gideon should not take a coat.

“And as for the night cap,” resumed the same subtle reasoner, “since it is of a red colour, it may remind him of the hot place which he has left, and then setting him to shiver and tremble, may give you, his opponent, some advantage.”

This, likewise, was carried unanimously.

The next series of questions was concerning the place. The book had mentioned a wood, and luckily it occurred to the remembrance of Gideon, that there was a dark wood, at a short distance from Ormskirk. But then, all the trees were of fir, and it was distinctly stated, that the challenger should stand behind a yew. Here seemed to be an insuperable objection.

By agreement they divided themselves into two committees, to deliberate upon the matter; and they placed themselves at opposite sides of the fire, and hid their faces in their hands, lest the other might know of their opinion. Once, indeed, they had started from their posture, as they imagined that they heard Nelly’s foot on the staircase, but as she did not make her appearance, it was resumed: and certainly the expression of their countenance at that moment would not have discovered any opinion about the question in consideration. At length Gideon started from his seat.